Last week it was still hot. On today's eight-mile ride, I wore two
pairs of tights under sweat pants, fuzzy gloves, a thick linen-cotton
scarf, two silk undershirts, one heavy-cotton jersey, and a
windbreaker -- and felt under-dressed.

Had to get my white gloves out of my walking coat -- I can't remember
where I put my yellow gloves last spring. At least I do know where my
split mittens a in my mending basket. The fingertips need
darning.

Despite the prediction, it rained at least twice during the ride, but
not hard enough to get me wet -- with me in mostly cotton and the high
in the forties (F), that was lucky. But I could have sworn that was
pellet snow hitting my face.

I remembered that I need more paper handkerchiefs in cold weather, but
there was only one in my reserve pocket when I got back, and most of
them were pretty wet when I threw them out.

Had to stop and clean my glasses once. Hope I remember to change the
spectacle rag in my sweatpants pocket.

I missed deadline because I was distracted by "get jet lag without
going anywhere" day.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

--
Joy Beeson, U.S.A., mostly central Hoosier,
some Northern Indiana, Upstate New York, Florida, and Hawaii
joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

In the U.S., non-riders regard cyclists as superhuman jerks. The
character "Jef the Cyclist" in the comic strip "Pearls before Swine"
has been toned down from the public perception.

There is nothing one can do about "superhuman", but one *can* refrain
from abetting the perception that we are all jerks.

So when I run a stop sign, I always exaggerate my head movements, to
be sure that observers can see that I'm not just barrelling through
and expecting drivers to magically avoid me. If a child is in
earshot, I narrate my actions so that he will know what he should do
when approaching an intersection.

If I ever notice a child watching me who is too far away to hear, I'll
come to a full, complete, foot-on-the-ground stop. Children shouldn't
be confused with fine details before they master the basics.

In the U.S., non-riders regard cyclists as superhuman jerks. The
character "Jef the Cyclist" in the comic strip "Pearls before Swine"
has been toned down from the public perception.

There is nothing one can do about "superhuman", but one *can* refrain
from abetting the perception that we are all jerks.

So when I run a stop sign, I always exaggerate my head movements, to
be sure that observers can see that I'm not just barrelling through
and expecting drivers to magically avoid me. If a child is in
earshot, I narrate my actions so that he will know what he should do
when approaching an intersection.

If I ever notice a child watching me who is too far away to hear, I'll
come to a full, complete, foot-on-the-ground stop. Children shouldn't
be confused with fine details before they master the basics.

FWIW, my almost-daily shopping route involves a T intersection with a
traffic light, the stem of the T to my right. The sign says "No turn on
red." And that right turn is my route back home.

I don't know why the sign is there. There's a school a block away but
kids are crossing only a tiny proportion of the time. It seems pretty
silly to wait.

Still, when I'm the first vehicle at that red light, I always sit and
wait for the green. Always! I'm hoping to educate the motorists around
me, to teach them that there are cyclists who obey the laws.

In the U.S., non-riders regard cyclists as superhuman jerks.Â* The
character "Jef the Cyclist" in the comic strip "Pearls before Swine"
has been toned down from the public perception.

There is nothing one can do about "superhuman", but one *can* refrain
from abetting the perception that we are all jerks.

So when I run a stop sign, I always exaggerate my head movements, to
be sure that observers can see that I'm not just barrelling through
and expecting drivers to magically avoid me.Â* If a child is in
earshot, I narrate my actions so that he will know what he should do
when approaching an intersection.

If I ever notice a child watching me who is too far away to hear, I'll
come to a full, complete, foot-on-the-ground stop.Â* Children shouldn't
be confused with fine details before they master the basics.

FWIW, my almost-daily shopping route involves a T intersection with a traffic light,
the stem of the T to my right. The sign says "No turn on red." And that right turn is
my route back home.

I don't know why the sign is there. There's a school a block away but kids are
crossing only a tiny proportion of the time. It seems pretty silly to wait.

Still, when I'm the first vehicle at that red light, I always sit and wait for the
green. Always! I'm hoping to educate the motorists around me, to teach them that
there are cyclists who obey the laws.

Attitudes toward bicyclists in the US can vary wildly by location.

I live in a very bicycle friendly area with drivers generally quite tolerant of the
slowpokes on two wheels that navigate the roads with them.

Since I live in a college area, particularly in September, we get a crop of new
students who come from areas which clearly are NOT bicycle friendly. I've had kids
driving by me in their cars yell at me to "get on the sidewalk where you belong" as I
ride my 10-11 mile commutes.

But I think over time, they come to learn to be more tolerant if not by choice, then
by law, or just resigning themselves to the inevitable bicyclist sharing the road
with them.

I pretty much *always* stop at stop lights or signs, even those T intersections where
going right or going straight really has no effect on traffic (not crossing a lane of
travel).

It's not my job to educate the motoring public concerning bicycle use on roads. But
I feel behaving legally, in particular at stops, is a sort of educating effort by
itself and certainly doesn't reinforce someone's negative view of bicyclists as
generally ignoring traffic laws.

In the U.S., non-riders regard cyclists as superhuman jerks. The
character "Jef the Cyclist" in the comic strip "Pearls before Swine"
has been toned down from the public perception.

There is nothing one can do about "superhuman", but one *can* refrain
from abetting the perception that we are all jerks.

So when I run a stop sign, I always exaggerate my head movements, to
be sure that observers can see that I'm not just barrelling through
and expecting drivers to magically avoid me. If a child is in
earshot, I narrate my actions so that he will know what he should do
when approaching an intersection.

If I ever notice a child watching me who is too far away to hear, I'll
come to a full, complete, foot-on-the-ground stop. Children shouldn't
be confused with fine details before they master the basics.

Does a bicycle have the right to ignore traffic laws in the U.S.?
--
Cheers,

On 11/8/2017 2:05 AM, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 07 Nov 2017 22:38:16 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:
On Wed, 08 Nov 2017 10:22:01 +0700, John B.
wrote:
Does a bicycle have the right to ignore traffic laws in the U.S.?

No, but bicycles are invisible.

Ah, so invisible things can ignore traffic signs :-)

Well, to discuss this more seriously:

It's nice to think that behavior should be precisely governed by laws,
but that's certainly not the case in the U.S.; and I wonder if it's the
case anywhere. Instead, what usually happens is some attempt at blending
the letter of the law with practicality.

Considering just traffic laws for the moment: Those require driving
absolutely no faster than the speed limit; stopping perfectly at every
stop sign; stopping and looking before pulling out of any driveway;
using one's turn indicator before turning or changing lanes; turning on
one's headlights any time the windshield wipers are necessary, and so on.

In practice, all those seem to be violated at least as often as they are
obeyed. If some police department were to attempt to ticket all
violators, they'd first have to deputize half the population to help.
And the public outcry would doom any re-election effort.

What happens instead is that most people don't exceed the speed limit by
very much. They actually stop at stop signs or before pulling out of a
driveway if there is someone coming. Occasionally, they remember what
that lever next to the steering wheel is for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTFHCyNVBTk And... well, the headlight
thing is pretty much ignored.

This stuff normally ends up mattering only if someone has a crash and
causes damage to property or people.

And the thing is, bike violations rarely hurt other people and almost
never damage property. So to cops, bikes are largely invisible.